The 1960s Quotes
They Said It
| “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” - President John F. Kennedy, 196153 |
| “The most direct and significant kind of federal action aiding economic growth is to make possible an increase in private consumption and investment demand—to cut the fetters which hold back private spending.” - President John F. Kennedy, 196254 |
| “The Great Society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor.” - President Lyndon Johnson, 196455 |
| “I want to be the President who educated young children to the wonders of their world. I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be taxpayers instead of tax eaters. I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way.” - President Lyndon Johnson, 196556 |
| “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!” - UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement leader Mario Savio, 196457 |
| “All over the world, people fighting Amerikan imperialism look to Amerika's youth to use our strategic position behind enemy lines to join forces in the destruction of the empire.” - Bernardine Dohrn, 197058 |
| “By God, this is America, and I'm a human being. I'm not a piece of property. I'm not a consignment of goods.” - Curt Flood, reflecting on his decision to reject a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies and sue Major League Baseball, 199459 |